The hivemind is conquering for me? Chapter 965: Broken What?

Onyx was confused for a moment, she didn’t expect the queen to speak in Spartari when Apollo wasn’t present. She hastily melded her body back down into its mating form for ease of speech and replied in kind.

"My queen. I had to leave the paradise of Apollo’s Mind for his own safety. I had a vision, one I didn’t force. If I stayed by Apollo’s side while we went to the Coalition, It would not have ended well. I’ve given him some instructions to follow and as long as he follows them, he should be back in our loving embrace in no time."

"You had a vision too? This worries us. One individual with foresight seeing our mate go to the prey collective is simple premonition. Two is something more." Jewel became became tempted to use her own form of foresight, disregarding the dangers of creating fixed points just to make sure her mate was truly safe, but ultimately decided against it after Onyx asked,

"My queen, you also had a vision?"

"We did not. It was-"

"-I had the dream." A soft spoken voice suddenly spoke out.

Onyx’s biological reflexes kicked in instantly. She completed a partial transformation of her body as she positioned herself between her queen and the third voice.

Her form was not perfect, but she could defend the queen and strike out at the same time.

Only she couldn’t move.

She was stuck.

Not from the action of the prey intruder, but because the queen exerted her force against her.

Onyx didn’t question the queen’s will, she just stared at the creature before her, her eyes going wide upon realising she had seen this creature before. The luminescent purple and green skin. Its large glassy purple eyes, its oval shaped head, the gills on its cheeks.

It was even wearing another set of wispy, almost fully transparent clothing while the tendrils around its body swayed back and forth softly.

"Vezzrah?"

Vezzrah proceeded to wave awkwardly, a moment later another voice suddenly blurted out throughout the whole ship.

"Onyx, you told me to stay silent, but I am picking up an alien of unknown origin within the ship. Another one that was not specified by you I mean."

Jewel, hearing that voice, suddenly looked around and swiftly found what she was looking for. ’That was the disturbance I could feel.’

She thought before classifying it as harmless, she could destroy it later.

"Oh! Astra, I am sorry, I meant no trouble. I am here to clear some things up. Please do not initiate code aliens! I cannot survive in space." Vezzrah spoke, stunning Onyx and the artificial life embodying the ship.

"Statement. No such code exists in my systems."

Vezzrah covered her mouth. "Whoops. Sorry, my mind is all over the future. Disregard what I just said please. Apollo wants to make the codes in the future."

Onyx was now truly dazed by what was going on. Jewel realised this and released the stalker, allowing movement to resume.

Upon feeling her autonomy return, Onyx still stayed completely still, morphing into her Stalker form for mental clarity. The moment she did, Vezzrah spoke again.

"Wow... Seeing it in my dreams and seeing it in person for the first time are completely different. You are really scary, Onyx."

Onyx, still unmoving, spoke to the queen for clarity. "My queen, why are we not devouring this prey?"

Jewel spoke to Onyx, but the Psionic energy that billowed out of her eye slits was focused on Vezzrah.

"While the prey is beyond reckless appearing before us for the second time. It has stated things about Apollo. About his condition. About him. We think it is useful to Apollo in the future.

It has also stated that when the time is correct, it will voluntarily become one with us with the route of bio cultist integration. Taking into consideration that would be the only way we can acquire its unique Psionics, we can wait."

Vezzrah got onto her knees as Jewel spoke. Once she was done, Vezzrah replied. "Thank you for not consuming me just yet, my queen. May I speak on my reasoning for being here?"

"You may." Jewel spoke directly to Vezzrah. Onyx was surprised by this. Other than Apollo, being in Jewel’s direct gaze and intent meant severe Psionic pain to the mind. Yet the feeble prey was able to stand without problem?

It was at times like this that Onyx was annoyed by the fact she was not connected to the rest of the hivemind with all the answers ready for her in an instant."

"Simply put, I am here to meet with Onyx. Being what she is. I cannot account for what she has seen in the vision she had on Lleon T1, where Apollo just was. And Onyx, before you ask. I mean this with no hostile intent. I know of your vision because my foresight power is stronger than yours."

Onyx opened her mandibles wide, prompting Vezzrah to jolt in shock.

"But that is it. You could kill me with a flick of your finger. I am not physically powerful. My Power is just unique."

Jewel then commented. "It is true. It was the first thing we noticed. Her body is barely biomass, but her Mindspace... We cannot even see into it. It is just misty."

Vezzrah then bowed again to the queen for her help in explaining her shortcomings before continuing. "However, just because I know you had a vision, being what you are. I cannot determine what it is, what you have seen or how this will affect your future plans. So, I am suggesting that we take notes and whatever we come up with will help the great plan that our queen and I have been working on to fix Apollo’s broken Timeline."

Onyx was flummoxed by everything she just heard. She had countless questions, but one took precedent over all.

"Apollo’s broken what?"

...

I took a deep breath. "You are going to be fine. You spoke to your troops didn’t you? Sure you blacked out halfway through it and got through it by sheer dumb luck, but you still did it. This can’t be nearly as bad right?"

I took another deep breath. "But that was different. That was only Phalanx. This is people. Being broadcasted all over the galaxy. How many is that? Millions? No. Trillions? Quadrillions?"

I threw my hands up in the air exasperated. ’Curse you my love with your infinite bodies! I don’t know what big numbers actually are! I just know there are going to be on average twice as many eyes on me...’

I looked down at the speech given to me by Jocasta. It was three sentences long. Thirty one words. They were burned in my brain now. And even if they weren’t I had Sol in my mind that could act as an internal teleprompter.

I sat back and rubbed my face with my hands in an attempt to move the stress from my body. The action made me laugh.

"Haha! Fuck me I need to figure out my priorities. I’m not scared of fighting big ugly aliens, but talking to a crowd and a camera makes me sweat buckets?."

I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders. "At least I’m not two dimensional. I have got to be imperfect somewhere considering my Origin..."

They say laughter is the best medicine and laughing at yourself was self treatment. I began to feel better about myself and read the three sentences once more out loud.

I nodded to myself. "I can do this. It’s just words. No big deal. Yeah... You’ve got this. You are a fireball slinging, Psionic bullet flinging, bug lovin’ Gyrokinetic-"

Suddenly the door opened to the room I had hid myself in and a techno mechanic walked inside.

"Sentinel Lambdason? Ah good. Please, come with me. The King will begin his speech soon. Your presence has been requested."

"Ok, coming." I said politely and began following behind the man. Meanwhile I was internally screaming.

’Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!’

...

Two minutes later:

’Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck, fuck, fuck, f-’

"Apollo, good, you are here, are you ready?" Sigismund spoke to me as a group of very attractive women were helping him with his toga.

"Yep, all good... I’m a bit nervous. I don’t like talking to a lot of people, never mind the whole empire." I admitted, prompting Sigismund to smile.

"I’ve known warriors like that. They prefer being in the thick of a good fight and hate social interactions. Don’t worry lad, you will be in and out. Unfortunately I have to talk for fucking ages. It is a serious drag. Don’t worry though, you will get used to it with a bit of practice."

Sigismund then strolled towards me, ignoring all the beautiful women attending him and stopped before me. I suddenly realised he was taller than me. Not by a lot like when he was in his armour, but by about an inch.

I was about to comment on it, but like Valerica had stated, my thoughts must have been expressed on my face.

"I only have enough ego to allow a few people to be taller than me in my presence at any given time. And with the entire Barros family of giants being here tonight, I am not allowing myself to look like an infant. So I made myself a bit bigger than you to make myself feel better haha."

Sigismund then patted me on the arm hard enough to make my bones cry before continuing,

"Anyway, let’s get you to Jocasta again so she can tell you where to stand during the ceremony."